Originally Posted by
Newton_14
Thonton? Now that's a first!
I am going to disagree on the choice of bug. Tyler is more like a gnat! I realize a gnat does not bite, they are everywhere and aggravate the heck out of you!
Okay, enough silliness. I agree with you 100% about Tyler. He is just a tremendously great help defender. I think we need to track how many turnovers he forces and at the end of the year, look at what % of our forced TO's were created by Tyler. Part of it is hustle and desire, part of it is understanding Duke's defensive scheme's better than many others before him, and a big part of it is a great ability to read the play and anticipate where the ball is going.
I love watching this kid play defense. Just a joy to watch.
I was surprised early in the year when coach K mentioned about how good a defensive player Tyler was, as my impression from last year was that he hustled a lot, had quick hands and generated some steals. It didn't appear to me that he was particularly strong at staying in front of the offensive player to prevent penetration. Others have made comments that he is very strong in help side but is not great one-on-one. My impression (small sample size and all and subjective) is that Tyler is doing a better job so far at preventing penetration and keeping his man in front of him. I hope I am correct and that this continues for Tyler, as well as Austin, Seth and Dre especially, as this has been one of my concerns with the loss of Kyrie, but moreso Kyle and Nolan from last year's team.
“Those two kids, they’re champions,” Krzyzewski said of his senior leaders. “They’re trying to teach the other kids how to become that, and it’s a long road to become that.”